Shiplu Sarker

Background and activities

Current research

Hydrogen in biogas (HyBig)

The wastes thrown to household kitchen bins or generated from agricultural farms are good source of renewable energy when transformed into biogas which can eventually drive vehicles or cook foods. Analogous to biological digestive system, an anaerobic digester containing microorganisms at right temperature can convert waste materials into biogas composing 60-70% of methane and 20-30% of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide although is a part of biogas, has no energy of its own. Hence to improve biogas quality this gas component needs to be either separated or converted to energy content gas such as methane. In the current research project, I am working on developing techniques allowing to transform carbon dioxide into methane. One approach such as adding hydrogen during anaerobic digestion can promote biological conversion of carbon dioxide into methane resulting in increased energy content of renewable biogas which is being investigated in this work.